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Solar energy breaks records

by Real Assets Adviser

The U.S. solar energy market had its biggest year ever in 2016, nearly doubling its previous record and adding more electric generating capacity than any other source of energy for the first time ever.

Over the next five years, the cumulative U.S. solar market is expected to nearly triple in size, despite a slight dip expected in 2017. GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association announced the figures on March 9 with the publication of the U.S. Solar Market Insight 2016 Year in Review report.

On average, U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) system pricing feel by nearly 20 percent in 2016, the largest average year-over-year price decline since GTM Research began modeling pricing in this report series.

"It would be hard to overstate how impressive 2016 was for the solar industry," said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, in a written statement. "Prices dropped to all-time lows, installations expanded in states across the country and job numbers soared."